Thursday, November 12, 2009

Nerd - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Although the idea of nerds is popular, those adopting the characteristics of nerds are not actually nerds by definition. One cannot be an authentic nerd by imitation alone; a nerd is an outsider and someone who is unable or unwilling to follow trends. Popular culture is borrowing the concept and image of nerds in order to stand out as individuals."

'Bromance' is a portmanteau, a combination of the words 'brother' and 'romance'. Editor Dave Carnie coined the term in the skateboard magazine Big Brother in the 1990s to refer specifically to the sort of relationships that develop between skaters who spent a great deal of time together.[2][edit] Sociology

Aristotle described a concept similar to the bromance as early as 300 BCE, writing, 'It is those who desire the good of their friends for the friends' sake that are most truly friends, because each loves the other for what he is, and not for any incidental quality'.[1] Research into friendship and masculinity has found that recent generations of men, raised by feminist mothers in the 1970s, are more emotionally open and more expressive.[1] There is also less concern among men at the notion of being identified as gay and so men are more comfortable exploring deeper friendships with other men"

Monday, November 02, 2009

Euphemisms often evolve over time into taboo words themselves, through a process described by W.V.O. Quine,[citation needed] and more recently dubbed the 'euphemism treadmill' by Steven Pinker. (cf. Gresham's Law in economics). This is the well-known linguistic process known as 'pejoration' or 'semantic change'.

Words originally intended as euphemisms may lose their euphemistic value, acquiring the negative connotations of their referents. In some cases, they may be used mockingly and become dysphemisms."

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

How Plagiarism Software Found a New Shakespeare Play - Yahoo! News: "Vickers detected 200 strings of three or more words in Edward III that matched phrases in Shakespeare's other works. Usually, works by two different authors will only have about 20 matching strings. 'With this method we see the way authors use and reuse the same phrases and metaphors, like chunks of fabric in a weave,' says Vickers. 'If you have enough of them, you can identify one fabric as Scottish tweed and another as plain gray cloth.' (No insult intended to Kyd.)"

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

When Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc reconciled back in 1998, the image of the Berlin Wall tumbling down was not the only media opportunity that was reported around the world.

The opening up of former communist countries to western ideals also created a zeal for new opportunities, and none more so than in the world of media and advertising.

What evolved was an industry based around placing paid articles in newspapers and magazines, a practice called zakazukha, a Russian word meaning payment for favourable editorial coverage.

In 2001 a Russian public relations agency exposed the practice by offering a number of Moscow newspapers cash in exchange for editorial coverage of a store opening. Sixteen publications entered into negotiations, with 13 running the story. The agency later revealed that no store actually existed.

Now lets call a spade a spade – someone has to get paid to generate the news stories businesses rely on to gain publicity as part of their overall marketing efforts (in fact Australia had its own cash for comment scandal in 1999 concerning paid advertising on radio masquerading as editorial commentary).

But don’t get us wrong, we’d never condone the practice of direct payment to media outlets for this sort of exposure (this caper is best left to the legitimate realms of advertising).

However if as much as 80 per cent of media content is derived from public relations material, then you’d be hard pressed to find a reason not to engage in an active media relations campaign."